Othera's Eye Drop to Cure ARMD Seems Promising But Too Early to Tell

Othera's Eye Drop to Cure ARMD Seems Promising But Too Early to Tell

April 16, 2009

Implications

An eye drop that stabilizes the most common form of AMD is encouraging. The ability for an eye drop to be effective is curious. Historically it has been difficult to get any medication effectively delivered to the retina via topical medications. The development of geographic atrophy is very, very slow and it is surprising that a positive trend can be noted in such a short time.
Analysis

Macular degeneration is on the rise. It is estimated that the prevalence of the disease will double in the next 40 years. Macular degeneration is often broken down into "wet" and "dry." The exudative, or wet form, involves choroidal neovascularization and is treated with anti-VEGF treatments such as Avastin, Macugen or Lucentis.

The dry form is the more common form affecting about 90% of all those afflicted with macular degeneration. The most severe of these is geographic atrophy (GA). It is a slowly progressive disease causing damage and loss of the vital underlying RPE cells. It usually takes years for patients to notice a change to their vision.

The news release describes a treatment that may be potentially helpful to most patients that are afflicted with macular degeneration. A simple eye drop to treat this disease is very intriguing. Presently, most treatments for wet macular degeneration involve direct intraocular injection of a substance as topical therapy has traditionally yielded poor drug levels reaching the retinal surface.

Clinically, it has been my experience that the disease progresses very slowly and to notice a change, for better or worse, in such a short time of two years is surprising.

Randall V. Wong, M.D.